Revenge
by Kitt Chaos
Summary: Not only did Yami lose Yugi's soul when he played the Seal of Orichalcos, but he also offended others by his uncharacteristic attitude and actions.


Yu-Gi-Oh! and all its characters, are the legal and intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi and any entities he has granted legal rights to. I claim no rights at all with my story. I greatly admire and feel gratitude to Mr. Takahashi for the amazing story and characters of Yu-Gi-Oh!

I humbly beg the pardon of Yu-Gi-Oh! purists, as I am basing this story on the Americanized version of the Duel Monsters story as aired by the KidsWB.

**Revenge**

**Prologue**

It was dark and cold. Thick clouds covered the sky. The wind wailed as a living thing, whipping by so fiercely that even the strongest flyers dared not take to wing. Bleak despair filled every eye and a hopelessness dragged at every heart.

She'd given up trying to get him to talk. Her master, the Dark Magician, seemed the most inconsolable of all, hugging his arms around his knees and rocking. And rocking. Nothing but rocking. He'd said not a word when they returned here, to the place where they existed between duels. His beautiful face seemed like marble with unchanging lines of strain, worry and loss making her want to cry whenever she looked at him. His eyes were the worst of all, filled with an emptiness so vast it was as if he were no longer there. No, it was more as if he were willing himself to no longer be there, inviting the emptiness to take him.

He never replied to her questions, never acknowledged her arms thrown around his in a sudden, impulsive hug, never stopped rocking in his grief and pain.

What was she to do?

She'd followed him here, leaving her life behind, trusting in him, who trusted in the pharaoh.

And, that pharaoh had betrayed them. He'd cast them aside as if they were nothing to him -- no, he'd been needlessly cruel making certain to belittle them as he threw their lives, their very selves, away.

She'd sit down next to her master too and retreat into a catatonia of grief as he had...

Except she was too damned pissed to fade away so quietly.

**Call to Judgement**

"Can we do it?"

"Are we strong enough?"

"Kwee!"

"It's a pretty harsh thing to do. Is it really necessary?"

"But we can't go on this way. Look what it's done to Dark Magician."

"He's not the only one. Others mourn too. Yugi is gone and only the pharaoh remains."

"And no one trusts him after what he did."

"The Heart of the Cards is broken. Can you forgive? For I cannot."

"I can't either."

"Then there is no other way. The Orichalcos is strong, but so are we. There is power in the shadows we keep at bay."

"So we can tap that..."

"...and bring him here..."

"...and make him pay."

--------

He tossed in his sleep. His dreams were nightmares torn asunder. Eyes the color of heliotrope stared into his with a loving understanding before fading away forever. The image of calm blue eyes, filled with a tragic emptiness instead of an amused, kindly regard, overwhelmed him with an inexpressible grief. Other shadows passed through his sleeping mind, leaving sensations of fear, wrath and bitter disappointment in their wake. He was filled with an abject shame. The images finally resolved into the shadow of an imposing figure that made his soul quiver in awed fear. 

A voice threaded through his tattered dreams. The voice was soft and light; still, filled with a resonant power. It rose and fell in the cadence of prayer, and he could almost make out the names invoked. At her prayer, for it was a woman's voice, the images in his mind resolved into a single golden eye, stylized in the form reminiscent of his ancient past, the past he imperfectly remembered, from five thousand years ago, when he was a pharaoh in the land of ancient Egypt.

"We are Light. We are Darkness.  
We are the hopes and fears of man.  
We are dreams and nightmares given form and expression.  
We call forth the Shadows that are our being.  
We summon the King of Games to a game.  
Our game.

Our Shadow Game."

The golden eye flashed, blinding his mind's eye, and casting his even his dreaming consciousness into shadows.

--------

He awoke to find himself flat on his back staring up at a leaden sky. He turned his head and realized he was not alone. Looming over him, staring down at him, glaring and glowering and scowling down upon him were the monsters of his duel deck. The bitterness and hatred in some of the eyes made him want to shake in fear. He'd never feared his duel monsters before -- but he did now.

He used the action of getting to his feet to look around for some way to escape if the wild fury he could sense broke free of the tenuous restraint of his angry duel monsters. There would be no escape. He was surrounded.

"We know the Orichalcos is powerful. But, Pharaoh, you seem to have forgotten the power of your cards, the power of your bond with Yugi, and the power you wear around your neck. If you had only trusted in those powers, you could have thrown off the evil of the Orichalcos." The Dark Magician Girl cast a disapproving look his way.

"Instead, you gave into it. We could not defend ourselves from the power you invited and so we were tainted by its evilness. I begged you to save us, to fight for us; I led you to free the dragon whose power it is your destiny to wield, and yet, you turned your back on us all to play the Orichalcos card, breaking all the powers you held, and losing Yugi in the process."

The Kuriboh squeaked sadly. The Summoned Skull's broad, skeletal hand reached up to pet the small duel monster's fur soothingly.

"The Heart of the Cards no longer recognizes you. You threw that away when you played that card, too. For what that has done to my master, I will never forgive you."

Most of the duel monsters surrounding him nodded gravely. Yami dropped his head, unable to meet the angry grief in their eyes.

"But, once, we trusted you. I must know if we were foolish and misled, for if we can no longer trust our judgement..."

The Dark Magician Girl paused. After a long moment, Yami looked up, directly into her eyes to meet her stern gaze.

"Judgement. That is what this is. For what you have done, to Yugi, to my master, and to us, your soul is forfeit. The Orichalcos may be more powerful that we, but I bet even it cannot save you from the Shadow Realm. Prepare yourself, Pharaoh. For now your cards are set against you. You face -- our judgement. And may whatever power you profess to believe in have mercy on your soul -- for I cannot promise that we will."

Yami dropped his gaze again, staring with unseeing eyes at the ground. He remembered the wild, powerful energy of the Orichalcos filling him. He remembered the wanton disregard that accompanied it. He'd felt his bond with Yugi break, but he hadn't cared. The fact that his monsters had been changed, made darker and more powerful by the evil spell card, hadn't mattered to him -- except to make them more useful tools to drive down his opponent's life points and win at any cost. He'd insulted and abused his duel monsters in that consuming desire. There was nothing he could say in his defense. What they accused him of was true.

"You -- have the right to judge me. I did let all of you down. I won't resist whatever you have in mind," Yami agreed quietly. He lowered his head, unable to bear the angry disappointment in the Dark Magician Girl's eyes.

He had no idea how his monsters would test him. He resolved to accept it, no matter what it was, out of respect for his monsters. He had abused them while under the influence of the Seal of Orichalcos. It was only right that he face the consequences of his actions.

"No! Master, you mustn't!"

Yami looked up at the distress in the Dark Magician Girl's voice. She reached out to grasp the shoulders of the Dark Magician and try to steer him away from the pharaoh. Yami was puzzled until he noticed that Dark Magician cradled his right arm with his left, as if he'd been injured, and that Big Shield Gardna was standing in his classic attack pose.

"You can't shield him. He must accept and endure all our attacks if he is to have a chance of earning our respect back again," the Dark Magician Girl explained. "If he falters, his soul is forfeit to the Shadow Realm."

The Dark Magician would not hear of it, by his actions silently insisting they not attack his Pharaoh, as he planted himself firmly and would not budge. At the Dark Magician Girl's nod, Summoned Skull and Celtic Guardian took hold of Dark Magician, one on each side, and moved him firmly out of the way. It tore at Yami how faithful his Dark Magician was, as he struggled to break his fellow monsters' hold, even after how Yami had treated him.

He realized as he endured the suffering of each attack that this was a way for him to atone for what he'd done. Allowing his monsters to vent their grief and frustration on him permitted them let it go, as each attack seemed to cause the shadows around them to lessen a little.

"_What I did was evil and wrong," _Yami admitted deep in his thoughts. "_I will do anything I can to earn the trust of the cards back again. Even if it costs me my soul_."

Yami was torn, battered, bloody, beaten, burned, frozen... But he stood still and did nothing to defend himself from each attack, accepting it as his due for betraying his cards. More painful to him than any attack was the sight of the tears flowing down the face of the Dark Magician, as his faithful duel monster continued to struggle frantically to break free.

Finally, the only monster left, the only one whose attack he has not endured, was the Dark Magician. Tears still streaming, Dark Magician shook his head mutely indicating that he wouldn't attack his master.

"You must. Master, if you do not, the Pharaoh cannot pass the judgement," Dark Magician Girl explained.

He shook his head again.

"You must admit it! You must admit the rage you feel. Don't try to hide it, Master. Don't try to disown it or sublimate it. All of us have felt the same rage. All of us know you feel it, too. Unless you attack, you can't let it go, and the Heart of the Cards will remain forever broken. If we cannot mend it -- we will lose the Pharaoh's soul to the Shadow Realm."

Dark Magician shook his head again, indicating that he couldn't bring himself to attack.

"You... You must." Yami's voice was a broken echo of itself, as battered as he was from his duel monsters' onslaught. "It is only what I deserve. I treated all of you shabbily. I took your trust and trampled it. I deserve the Shadow Realm for what I have done to you, and for what I have done to Yugi; but, if you do not help me to redeem myself, and to earn back your trust -- there is no way I can save Yugi from the peril I've placed him in."

Yami looked up and pleaded directly into the Dark Magician's tormented face.

"Attack me. Help me to atone for what I have done. Redeem me -- and then perhaps, I can earn your trust, again. It is only with that trust, it is only with your heart, that I have even a chance of rescuing Yugi."

The Dark Magician closed his eyes. Eternal seconds passed as he struggled with himself and the decision he had to make.

He spoke his first words since the nightmare reality of the Orichalcos duel.

"Forgive me." It was a whisper.

Yami's heart sank. The Dark Magician loved him too much to be able to attack him! Without that attack, there was no way he could pass the cards' judgement. If not for Yugi, he would accept the banishment to the Shadow Realm with no regrets as his punishment for transgressing the trust of his cards.

The Dark Magician's eyes snapped open, blazing in righteous anger.

"How DARE you?!" he bellowed. "How dare you not trust us to save you? How dare you accept such an evil power, polluting even us with its energy, to win? How _dare_ you say such evil and vile things? How _dare_ you make such monsters of us? How _dare_ you go against your own soul's partner to embrace such evil?! How _dare_ you...?"

Dark Magician's rage passed as suddenly as it had come.

"...make us attack you to undo what you have done?" he finished brokenly.

He drew a shuddering breath, mastering his rage so he could express it clearly. "If you do not find and rescue Yugi, I will never truly forgive you. And, I will find a way to drag you into the Shadow Realm for all time, even if I must go there too," he promised in a low, dark voice.

Yami nodded, knowing the strength of the Dark Magician when it came to honoring pacts. Dark Magician aimed his staff directly at him with a steady arm. Yami refused to look away, even knowing that this last attack would hurt more than all the others. He locked his gaze on the angry blue eyes of his Dark Magician and nodded.

The most powerful Dark Magic attack swept over him, blinding him to everything except the screaming pain of his body and the searing agony of his soul.

Yami was dimly aware that the golden eye appeared before him again. This time he was drawn painfully through the eye's pupil as his senses whirled away in a sea of pain.

**Call to Ma'at**

A young man stood before him, garbed in the pure white dress of ancient Egypt. Gold adorned his ears, arms, wrists and ankles. Yami knew he must be ancient, so he wondered at his assumption of youth, until he realized the man's head, that of a male lion, did not have a mane. The man held a scarlet knife loosely by his side.

At that, Yami knew who faced him. He threw himself upon the ground, face first, to respect the god.

"You recognize me, Pharaoh?"

Yami swallowed convulsively and nodded. It took him a moment to master his fear enough to be sure of his voice. "You are the 'Avenger of Wrongs' ...the 'Truth before Ma'at'."

"Do not forget that I am also called the 'Wielder of the Knife' and 'The Scarlet Lord'." The young man lifted his red knife to demonstrate.

"And you know my function, Pharaoh?"

Yami closed his eyes, realizing how deep his action of playing the seal of Orichalcos had lead him into disharmony with the universe.

"Lord Maahes, you punish those who violate ma'at," Yami whispered.

"Indeed. Which you have done. The prayers of the Dark Magician Girl, who used to be a child of Egypt, alerted me to your offense. Yet, you have taken action to atone for that transgression. Let us see if it is sufficient. You may stand."

With that, Maahes lifted his knife, pointed the tip directly at Yami, and released the handle. Maahes' knife floated with its edged side up.

"Since you are not dead -- yet -- there is no need to trouble Anubis with the task of weighing your heart," Maahes told him. The balances of a scale appeared on either side of his blade.

"Now, let me see the truth of the matter."

Maahes merely looked at him, still it was the hardest gaze Yami had ever faced. Harder than the disappointed gazes of the friends he shared with Yugi, harder than the disillusionment in the eyes of his duel monsters, and the betrayed look in the eyes of the Dark Magician, even harder than the look of regret in Yugi's eyes when he took Yami's place as the sacrificed soul lost to the Orichalcos. His eyes dropped, unable to meet that censuring stare.

The Seal of Orichalcos sprang suddenly from Yami's chest. He gasped and recoiled. That seal, that image, had caused him to forget his destiny, forsake his friends, betray his soul-mate and go against ma'at.

At Maahes gesture, it settled on one of the trays of the scale. It tipped all the way down against the empty tray.

"Your offense against ma'at," Maahes intoned.

He stared into Yami's eyes and through to his soul again. Yami felt echoes of the various attacks he had suffered from his outraged Duel Monsters. For some reason, this time he was able to maintain his gaze with the god.

A card, a duel monster's card, sprang from his heart this time. Maahes reached out to lift and hold the scale in balance again as the card settled on the opposite tray from the Seal of Orichalcos.

"You accepted their attacks without complaint, without ducking and without flinching. You even urged the most powerful attack you suffered, perhaps sensing that your offense against your Dark Magician was great enough that he had to attack you to be able to follow his own heart, his path to ma'at, himself again."

Yami couldn't help but wonder if Lord Maahes was -- pleased, or at least approving of what he had done to atone.

"However, it is your duel monsters who called you to that judgement. You did not seek it out, which you could have done. You merely followed where they led. Your atonement has balanced against your offense to them. It is now time for us to see if your atonement balances against your offense before my eyes, as the manifestor of the will of ma'at."

He dropped his hand from the scale. It swung from side to side, the seal signifying Yami's offense weighing down its side, then the card of his atonement swinging the balance to its side in turn. When Maahes' scale had finished finding its balance point, it was dropped toward the side of the Seal of Orichalcos, the side of the offense.

"The scale has shown the truth," Maahes declared. "Your offense against ma'at is greater than the price of the atonement you have paid."

He reached forward to take the handle of his knife back again. Yami knew there was no way he could defend himself against Lord Maahes, who would make certain Yami's offense against ma'at was properly punished. Even knowing it would cost him his life, and his very heart and soul, he bowed his head, accepting the decision of the god. Pleading wouldn't help. Indeed, there was no defense for what he had done.

"Wait," a voice said quietly. Maahes froze, recognizing the voice. Even Yami looked up, recognizing the voice though he had never heard it before.

A feather appeared high above them and floated down slowly until it rested, poised just above the blade serving as the base of Maahes' scale.

"Pharaoh, of all of those offended by your prideful and selfish act of playing the Seal of Orichalcos, to whom are you most sorry?"

Yami knew he should say "Lady Ma'at". The goddess was reminding him, yet again, as Lord Maahes had done each time by calling him by his title of "Pharaoh", that his primary and most sacred duty was to uphold ma'at in all of his actions. Many pharaohs had come after him, and he no longer ruled the land of Egypt, but his duty to ma'at had not lessened. He was still, and always would be, the Pharaoh. It was his duty to balance each decision he made against his own call to ma'at, the right action of the universe. Had he even thought of ma'at when he played the Seal of Orichalcos? He knew he had not. Somehow, he had lost his way. But it was not Lady Ma'at to whom he felt most strongly he should apologize to.

His cards. His duel monsters, too, had been offended, deeply, by his action of playing that card. Even now, he felt shame for what he had done, all that he said and how basely he treated them. The Dark Magician might forgive him, but Yami wondered if he would ever forgive himself. What he had done to them was, in a way, beyond forgiveness.

But, the one he had offended the most...

"Yugi. Forgive me, I know my wrong action is infinitely offensive to you, but Yugi paid for my transgression with his soul, even knowing by doing so that his soul's energy would hasten to bring about the arrival of Leviathan and the end of the world. My offense against you, and my cards, is deeper than anything else I can ever imagine, but my offense against Yugi..."

The words failed him. He knew he was doomed, for not speaking the name of his goddess, the one he was sworn, by his very nature as "pharaoh" to always uphold, but he wouldn't compound his offense to her by lying to her, even though it cost him everything. He slumped to his knees before the Avenger of Wrongs, the Lord of the Massacre, and knew that he was...

He was lost. His offense against ma'at, and thus Lady Ma'at, was so great...

But, his offense against Yugi was greater still. Yugi might only be a mortal boy, while Lady Ma'at was an ancient, powerful and eternal goddess, but still, Yami had managed to offend Yugi more.

Ma'at's feather moved, drifting first one way then the other and finally settled on the side of the scale bearing the card. The scale settled into perfect balance.

"Make things right between us again, Pharaoh. Follow the dictates of your own heart and do not stray again."

The feather, then the scale, vanished.

Maahes reached out to reclaimed his knife, dropping his hand to hold it loosely by his side again.

"You have been given a second chance. Do not waste it, Pharaoh." He pierced Yami's soul with that deep-seeing gaze again.

"Let us not meet prematurely again, Pharaoh."

"When next we meet, I hope to be worthy to invoke your more gentle, helpful aspect, Lord Maahes. Thank you."

"Thank Ma'at. I only manifest her will."

For the third time this day, a golden eye appeared before him. This time he retained his consciousness as he was drawn through the pupil. He found himself standing in the center of his room and wondered at the reality of all that had happened.

He still felt a vast, tearing emptiness inside of himself. He still felt guilt for what he had done to lose Yugi. But now...

He didn't feel quite so alone. And he didn't feel as if he'd go mad from guilt. And perhaps, just perhaps, if he needed the Heart of the Cards while he was trying to rescue Yugi, his duel monsters would be there for him.

For now, that was enough.

- end -

* * *

Author's notes - 

Many, many thanks to Lucidscreamer for her insights and input with this story, especially her help with the Egyptian deities, Ma'at and Maahes, and the concept of "ma'at".

Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to send me a private message if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!


End file.
